In 1998, Ashanti Gold was the 3rd largest Gold Mining company in
the world. The first "black" company on the London Stock
Exchange, Ashanti had just purchased the Geita mine in Tanzania,
positioning Ashanti to become even larger. But in May 1999, the
Treasury of the United Kingdom decided to sell off 415 tons of
its gold reserves. With all that gold flooding the world market,
the price of gold began to decline. By August 1999, the price of
gold had fallen to $252/ounce, the lowest it had been in 20
years.

Ashanti turned to its Financial Advisors - Goldman Sachs - for
advice. Goldman Sachs recommended that Ashanti purchase enormous
hedge contracts - "bets" on the price of gold. Simplifying this
somewhat, it was similar to when a homeowner 'locks in' a price
for heating oil months in advance. Goldman recommended that
Ashanti enter agreements to sell gold at a 'locked-in' price, and
suggested that the price of gold would continue to fall.

But Goldman was more than just Ashanti's advisors. They were also
sellers of these Hedge contracts, and stood to make money simply
by selling them. And they were also world-wide sellers of Gold
itself.

In September 1999 (one month later), 15 European Banks with whom
Goldman had professional relationships made a unanimous surprise
announcement that all 15 would stop selling gold on world markets
for 5 years. The announcement immediately drove up gold prices to
$307/ounce, and by October 6, it had risen to $362/ounce.

The full article at Ghana Web tells how Ashanti was driven to
bankruptcy and sold to AngloGold. What really gets at the
Ghanaian author and several hundred commenters is that every
character in the story, down to the British gold company, was
represented by Goldman Sachs.

Of course, there's nothing necessarily illegal about betting
against a client -- Ghana or ACA. It depends on the exact
circumstances. But this is the aspect of the
Goldman SEC charges that will piss off past and future
clients.